Liam Fay: Shooting the media messenger won’t solve any crisis

Fianna Fail ministers have been examining their reflections in various mirrors lately, and are frankly appalled by what they see. Far from the gallant warriors of their imaginings - imperial, vigorous, fighting fit for the battles ahead - they've been forced to see themselves represented as lame ducks and bumptious bluffers: tired old blowhards who are demonstrably washed-up, yet who remain inexplicably swollen with self-satisfaction.

Embarrassed by the spectacle, the party's bigwigs have pledged to take immediate action. They've decided to blame the mirror manufacturers.

Ironically, it was Conor Lenihan, the science minister, who revealed his party's faith in this voodoo. Making a defiant leap through the looking glass, he effectively argued that Fianna Fail ministers would be much less unpopular if only journalists would make them look better.

Speaking on Newstalk last weekend, Lenihan insisted that the public's anti-government rage is fuelled by the relentless negativity of a politically- motivated news